A high school friend has died

I was sitting in my IKEA chair in the late afternoon. like I always do, scrolling through my Facebook when I noticed a message on Dave Glogowski's page stating that he unexpectedly died of a "cardiac event" on April 15th. He was a retired USAF colonel and just 65 years old. I saw that message and was shocked. He was always so active and healthy, how could he die so soon? David and I were good friends in High School in Germany where our parents were stationed. Kaiserslautern American High School. I was class of 1978 and he the class of 1979. We both were on the cross country and track teams. along with sisters Jill and Lynda, Tim Davis (my boyfriend for that last year until he dumped me a week before the prom), Mark Burdan,Don Stearns, Bob. We often went out together to downtown Kaiserslautern and ate and drank at the Weinstube. Dave and Tim got close that last year and the two boys were also good friends. Dave and I were never serious, also we did go out as close friends briefly in college. HE went to the U of Illinoi and I went to Indiana U. When he told me that I would need to convert to the Catholic faith I knew it wasn't meant to be. Besides, Dave was always highly driven and he was determined to join the Air Force after college. I didn't just want to be an officer's wife stuck in the home with the kids, so we parted gently. We kept in contact sporatically, meeting in the base library of McGuire Air Force Base next to Fort Dix where I was stationed. He happened to be in the area for some of his troops graduation. Our conversation was short and a bit awkward as he let me know I should have been an officer instead of enlisted. But all that aside, I admired Dave for his success. He married a woman he met at U of Illinois and they stayed together for 43 years, until his death last week. His strong faith and his allegiance to country and family were important to him. He was also very proud of his accomplishments. The death saddened me as I'm sure his wife Jeanne is hurting. Now a widow with three grown kids and four grandchildren, she is all alone in their big Florida home. I'm sure she is grieving. Dave was always active, so dying of a cardiac event seemed so weird. I ended up scrolling through Dave's Facebook page to know more about his career. We hadn't hooked up on Facebook until just six months ago, and I was even skeptical to accept his friend request. But his page is disappointing as he doesn't post much unless he and Jeanne are out enjoining a performing arts play at the center in Tampa. He posted a bit about his daughters and grandkids but little about Jeanne. He also posted a crypted post about "fighting the black dog" late last year. I'm not sure what that was about as his older posts were seldom personal. I ended up going to bed early and forsaking a night walk. I kept thinking about Dave, knowing he's now gone forever and a high school reunion with him and the old track team will never be. And that got me thinking: is it better to die young and successful, or old and experienced?